Child Labor During The Industrial Revolution Essay

“I believe in the children of the future,” are lyrics of The Greatest Love of All, made famous in 1977 and 1985 by George Benson and Whitney Houston respectively. They believed in the value of children in our society and that they should be protected. However, those people believed in a child 's capacity to change the world in the future. While people in the past saw children as a way to change the world while they were children. In the late seventeenth century, industrialization arose in England ushering in a new era of industry in our world. More industry means more workers, including children. With the rise of industrialization in a nation, child laborers are viciously abused due to their niche roles in production and their families

child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy

“The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many children were drawn into the labor force. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families. However, child laborers rarely experienced their youth” (National Archives). Child labor was a “normal” thing to many people

Children would breathe hot air, would have sweat dripping down their faces and would taste the dirt and salty tears. Their backs and every other part of their body would start aching by the age of 14. This is what happened during the early 1900's when child labor existed. Families in the early 1900's (also known as the Progressive Era) would work their own children for 16 hours a day in awful conditions with very little pay. The abolishment of child labor made modern children not have to feel the pain that children would experience. The end of child labor in the United States affected children today because if the end of child labor never happened then child labor would still be a tremendous problem in the United States today.

During the 19th century child labor was still an ongoing; huge impact in America, mostly because factories needed tiny hands to do the job. They had no option but to work nor resting, they were not able to attend going to school. Handling machines was all they knew how to do, their childhood was taken away from them at a very young age. Several of the machines need no adult strength only tiny hands so they could fit between motors and gears. The lower working class families had to rely on their kids for more income, but what they made was never enough. Child Labor first started in the early 1800’s, while all hand work was now being replaced by machines in huge factories making steel, glass, and chemicals. In fact, kids were breathing in chemicals

If it wasn’t in farms, then it was out in the hot sun of the fields, or even in factories. Kids were meant to work in their family’s farm, but when it was time to send them to work in other farmer’s farm it was to do so. Working in agriculture was difficult with the extreme temperatures. For some children high temperatures was normal because of how they were used to being out working. Others that worked in factories sometimes dealt with carrying heavy equipment and dangerous tools. Many factories had to do with fire and toxins that many worked around of. Being in factories they were useful due to their size, they’d fit anywhere that adults couldn’t reach into. They were easier to control for how young they were and even though they managed to do most of the work, they were paid less than the adults. All minors had long hours to work every day for such little pay. Sometimes hours reached at least ten to fourteen and didn’t give them much break that was supposed

Child labor has been an extremely serious issue since the early industrial revolution and it continues to be an issue today. The movement towards the industrial revolution increased demand for labor, especially cheap labor, which targeted young children as a means for performing work in the factories. Since it was an economically growing era for the United States, children in the 18th century worked long hours for low minimum wage under harsh conditions to help their families. Children were easily suitable for the working conditions in the factory because of their size, and it was easy to manage them because the factories did not have to worry about paying them more as compared to adults. Further, today in the United States of America,

Child labor was a staple during the Urbanization of the United States of America. Fresh out of a bloody Civil War that took the lives of at least 618,000. Child labor was very dangerous. Especially in the steel mills because of the lack of safety equipment. It was also very dangerous because the children laborers were very young for the jobs they were doing for such cheap pay. Anywhere between 12-16 years old. Since they were all very young they were not very strong. So due to them being weak, young, basically meeting no physical conditions to be able to work efficient the steel mill owners would take advantage of that. They saw cheap labor. Very cheap and easy labor.

During the change over to a more industrialized economy, power-driven machines became popular in the early 1800’s. As a result of needing works, the production of child labor occurred. Child labor was a major problem due to several aspects of cruelty. There was no need for adult strength when one can hire children, while they work for continuous hours and barely paying them a dollar per week. On average children whom worked in a factory worked about twelve to eighteen hours a day, six days a week, to earn all but one dollar. Several children from poor families were either forced to work in factories since their parents could not support their needs, and/ or their heartless parents turning them over to a factory owner. Sources say

The issue of child labor is one that always arises in the discussion of the industrial revolution.Child labor was a ongoing problem because families were so poor they often times could not afford to send them to school, instead they would send them to the factories to work long hours often with minimal pay. There were many different types of jobs in the Industrial Revolution, depending on how fortunate the children are to be employed in an industry where there was less hard labor such as trade while the less fortunate to be worked on a farm or in the textile industry.

Children had been servants throughout human history, child labor had reached new hard extreme levels during the Industrial Revolution. Children had often worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for little money. Children were useful as laborers because their size had allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit. Child laborers had to work to help support their families, but were forced to go without an education. The minimum role of child labor in the United States today is one of the more outstanding changes in the social and economic life of the nation over the last two centuries. Child labor was not a subject of controversy, it was a basic part of the agricultural economy. Children had not only worked on their

Child labor can be described as children who work to produce a good or a service which can be sold for money to the marketplace, regardless of whether they are paid for their work (Tuttle). Child labor was a problem during the Industrial Revolution when factories, mills, and mines expanded. Children were cheap, easy to train, and small enough to reach parts of the machines that were too challenging for adults to reach. Many of the children that were employed were those of the poor and working-class family, so children were expected to work to help contribute to their family’s income. Children started working as young as four years old. They spent long hours in unhealthy working conditions, only getting a couple hours a day for a break. Many children worked 16-hour days in atrocious conditions and got little to no pay

The jobs in the factories were easy, and factories didn’t have to pay children as much as adults, so the factories took advantage of that. Children had to work an estimate of 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, to earn no more than a dollar.

Although children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history , child labor reached new extremes during the industrial revolution. In the late 1700s and early 1800s is when power driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. The factory owners found a brand new source of labor to run their machines … children , operating the power driven machines did not take adult strength. And children could be paid way less than adults. By the mid 1800s child labor was a major problem . Children had always worked especially in farming. But factory work was hard a child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day. 6 days a week to earn a dollar. Many of these kids started to work at ages younger than 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. Some children worked underground in coal mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and rest very little making them become sick faster. By 1810 about 2 million children about 5 or 6 18 were working

Children in the work force are not necessarily a bad thing. Some children by free want and like to work, but the potential for exploitation and violation of civil rights can be very high in the some work places. As mentioned earlier children in many cases work to help their family and the experience can be a very pleasant one. This all depends on many things such as the age of the child, the hours worked, the conditions, and the ability to still attend school. On the other hand many children are forced into work. With bonded labor a family in need of money would be given advanced payment and then turn over a child to work for the employer to repay this debit. Most of the time it is nearly impossible for the child to pay off this debit because the interest that is deducted forms the child’s earnings is very large. There are also other forms of slavery that children must endure such as being denied the right to leave the workplace or being confined and beaten by the employer. Other adverse conditions that some children face are working extremely long hours and handling dangerous materials such as chemicals, pesticides. These conditions are usually seen by children who work in mines and agriculture. Some of the after affects that children who work in these kinds of conditions face could